Going for Broke

Living on the Edge in the World's Richest Country

By: Alissa Quart (Editor), David Wallis (Editor)

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Paperback | 1 February 2024

At a Glance

Paperback
376 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
21.6 x 14.0 x 2.13

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A collection of compelling, hard-hitting first-person essays, poems and photos that expose what our punitive social systems do to so many Americans.

Going for Broke, edited by Alissa Quart, Executive Director of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, and David Wallis, former Managing Director of EHRP,gives voice to a range of gifted writers for whom 'economic precarity' is more than just another assignment. All illustrate what the late Barbara Ehrenreich, who conceived of EHRP, once described as 'the real face of journalism today: not million dollar-a-year anchorpersons, but low-wage workers and downwardly spiraling professionals'.

One essayist and grocery store worker describes what it is like to be an 'essential worker' during the pandemic; another reporter and military veteran details his experience with homelessness and what would have actually helped him at the time. These dozens of fierce and sometimes darkly funny pieces reflect the larger systems that have made writers' bodily experiences, family and home lives, and work far harder than they ought to be.

Featuring introductions by luminaries including Michelle Tea, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor and Astra Taylor, Going for Broke is revelatory. It shows us the costs of income inequality to our bodies and our minds - and demonstrates real ways to change our conditions.

Industry Reviews

"The subjects' voices jump from the page with pain and hope. More than that, they're a provocation to the reader to consider the fine line between the lives of the "middle precariat" and their own, if there is one. Whether it’s the ironies of telling working people not to smoke when the system does precious little to secure basic health care, an underpaid adjunct instructor handing her EBT card to her student clerking at the local grocery store, or a person with hearing impairments whose doctor thinks that hiding her condition as a “surprise” for a medical student is a hilarious joke, the editors position the voices of the disadvantaged as compelling, worth listening to, and valuable." -Booklist, Starred Review

"These emotionally charged and heart-wrenching narratives are both wide-ranging and powerfully rendered.... A penetrating collection that is certain to challenge the readers’ views of those living in poverty." —Kirkus

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